Refuting the Kickstarter House Rumors

What actually happened with the Super Retro Squad Kickstarter house?

As we move toward the Steam Early Access release of Glitch Strikers, (formerly known as Super Retro Squad), I thought it was important to refute the rumor that I used the Kickstarter money to buy a house for myself.

When the Kickstarter campaign concluded, our team was distributed around the country, so we thought we could save money by living in one location during development so that each individual would not have to pay their own rent. I contributed personal money (with the help of my parents) to help one of the team members buy a house that was big enough for all of us to live in. The address of this house was 6386 S Canterbury Rd, Parma, OH, 44129.

Take a look at the public records on Trulia (or wherever you want). The records show it was purchased on September 20, 2012 for $139,000, and it was sold again on October 21, 2016 for $135,000. If the records let you view the owner, you will see that it was not me; it was one of the other people on the team. I have never owned a house, and I currently live in an apartment that my wife and I are renting in Wisconsin.

Personally, I lived in the house from October 2012 to April 2016. The house ended up being a terrible decision since I didn’t get back most of the money I contributed to it. Looking back, I think it would have been smarter to rent a house since we still could have saved money by each individual not having separate rent to pay. I also think renting would have been seen as less controversial, but that is not something I expected at the time.

Related

3 thoughts on “Refuting the Kickstarter House Rumors”

Hi Jay. I remember meeting you back around 2012 when you were in Ohio. I’m glad to see you’re still active and developing your project. It’s ludicrous to think that your development team could have all lived off of the Kickstarter funds for even six months, let alone bought a house. I suppose it could have been enough for a down payment… but whatever. Game development is business, businesses exist to make money, people earning money from running a business need to live somewhere, ergo houses. Sometimes business ventures fail, and investors lose their money, dreams are shattered, and there are bad feels all around. At least you’re still out there trying to make good on your promises. Don’t feel too bad for not meeting people’s expectations. At worst, you’re only guilty of dreaming bigger than you knew, and underestimating how much it would take to make it happen. The reality is there’s a long string of failures leading up to every single success, with the possible exception of Mozart. You’re surviving, still kicking, and when the game is ready, it’ll be good. Peace and rejoice.

I’m glad you cleared that up. I didn’t contribute to the kickstarter, but I have followed your blog for a long time (since before the kickstarter). I was never mad at you guys for all the delays, but I have curiously followed the progress. Due to a lack of information (either because I didn’t see it, or because it wasn’t shared publicly), I also assumed you guys had bought this house with kickstarter funds. Glad to hear that wasn’t the case. I have seen worse things done with startup fund money…